Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes won his second consecutive AMA Pro Road Racing Superbike Championship on the final lap of the final race of the season
Media Release
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Posted September 07, 2011
Millville, NJ
Monster Energy Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Josh Hayes (Photo: Evan Williams)
Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes won his second consecutive AMA Pro Road Racing Superbike Championship on the final lap of the final race of the season this past weekend.
Hayes showed up for the season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park trailing Suzuki-rider Blake Young by just five points. Hayes handily won Saturday’s opening race, his third win of the season, to set up a final-race showdown for the title.
Hayes had been there before. His mantelpiece holds four number one plates: 2003 Superstock, 2006 and 2007 Formula Xtreme, in addition to the Superbike title from on year ago. That experience would prove invaluable on Sunday.
Still, well into the final lap, in the final race of the season, Young was in position to steal the title away. Then, a critical riding error by Suzuki-rider Ben Bostrom elevated Hayes a spot to guarantee the championship. Not content with third, Hayes made a final run past Suzuki-mounted Roger Hayden, and proceeded to pull alongside Young, only to come up short by .055 seconds.
“I feel like a wet rag that’s been rung out,” Hayes said. “That race took two years off my racing life.”
When the points were tallied up, Hayes total of 263 eclipsed the tally of 258 for Young, with 14 of those points coming as bonuses. Hayes earned an extra point for each of his seven pole positions, and for leading the most laps in seven of 13 races.
Monster Energy caught up Hayes as he was driving with his wife, fellow road racer Melissa Paris, to Atlantic City. The 36-year-old Mississippi native wasn’t heading to the East Coast gambling Mecca to lay bets, he was on his way to the post-season banquet to celebrate his second consecutive AMA Pro Road Racing Superbike title with the rest of the Monster Energy Graves Yamaha team. First, he had to find the hotel, then Melissa had to find a dress, and finally, he could walk into the ballroom as the best of the best.
ME: This wasn’t your first time racing for a championship, which must have been a big help.
JH: Absolutely. There were a lot of things that worked in my favor. I have been in this position a bunch of times, and I’ve been successful in this position a bunch of times. Blake hasn’t been in a championship run before, and we were coming to a track (where) I had won every race we had raced here, while he hadn’t been on the podium. I have a job already for next year, so I wasn’t racing for a job. There were a lot of things that were all right for me to have no pressure and just be able to go out, and ride my best, and not worry about it. Even one other thing was – it may sound kind of silly – but I had already won the AMA Superbike Championship. If I didn’t win it this year, I got another shot at it next year, and I’ve won it before, so I know I can. My name’s in the record books as an AMA Superbike Champion. It’s not like, man, if I don’t win it, I might never get that opportunity. I’ve done it. I made it. And if I got a second one that was great. If I didn’t, yeah, it stinks, because that’s what we work real hard for, but I get to come back next year and try again.
ME: At Mid-Ohio, Blake complained about your riding and you made the point that the pressure might be getting to him because he hadn’t been in the lead until then.
JH: I didn’t see much of Blake at Laguna. After that, we get to this position and I knew what my position was. I’ve been through it before. He hasn’t. I’m pretty sure that was a long six weeks at home for him. I was pretty sure that was a long six weeks of thinking about how things could go down, were going to go down, might go down, or might not go down. And I was, quite honestly, really relaxed. I felt good about everything. I just wanted to make sure I showed up here feeling good. I knew if I just went out there and went through the motions of what I do every single weekend, quite honestly it was Blake’s championship to win or lose. It was either he was going to step up and take it. Or, if he floundered a little bit, sorry, but it was going to be mine, because I was going to go through the same motions that I do every weekend. And that’s exactly how it played out. He had a bad Saturday. The championship was won on Saturday.
